Dear Editor,
As usual, Rusty woke me up at 5:00 am this morning and took me for a walk around the village of Success. When he stopped in the grass at the side of the Chateau Margot road to do his business, I looked south and saw the Police vehicle near the canal separating the village from the squatters. It then literally dawned on me that this still sleeping village would soon be embroiled in political and racial turmoil as soon as the canals started to overflow their banks and flood out the squatters. It should be pellucid to all Guyanese that these squatters are pawns in a political game of chess between the two major political parties. The recent disingenuous comments by the former Minister of Housing calling on the PPP/C Government to let the squatters remain begs the question; why did the APNU/AFC Government not bestow lands to these squatters when they were busy handing out lands in Ogle during the last days of their ignoble reign?
While squatting is illegal, I would exhort the current government to make haste slowly and do not be forced into a situation that will quickly escalate out of control. As Saint Francis of Assisi said, “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible”.
The PPP/C plans to develop 50,000 house lots in five years is laudable, however this is not soon enough to satisfy all the persons who are currently waiting for house lots or squatting. I am reminded of a quotation by Dwight Eisenhower, “the plan is nothing, planning is everything.”
The Government needs to start by doing what is necessary, allocating house lots to people who need them immediately even if the sites are not properly developed. This may seem to be counterproductive, but it is 100 percent better than squatting.
They then need to do what is possible, relocating the squatters to the identified demarcated sites even though there are no proper roads and utilities. Again, this would be better than squatting because it would be a properly surveyed and laid out site which could be developed later.
Finally, the Government would have to do the impossible and develop the housing schemes after they have already been occupied. This could be made possible with the billions in US dollar investments which are available for development of the country. It could also be a way of generating employment in the areas by recruiting the same residents to do the necessary work.
Yours faithfully,
Tara Singh
